Monday, April 14, 2014

Ukrainian Crisis - Countdown

On behalf of Russia, the UN Security Council holds an extraordinary session tonight to investigate the Ukrainian crisis.

[Source: Al-Jazeera الجزيرة evening news on April 13, 2014]

The Security Council's session actually did not take long and showed, as expected, nothing but an exchange of different standpoints and standardized stances between Russia's ambassador Vitaly Churkin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yuriy Sergeyev.

Churkin's proposal to Western leaders to "get to the telephone and convince the Ukrainians to refrain from what they are doing" and his wish for a "broad political dialogue on Ukraine", was not much convincing. Compared to this, Sergeyev's arguments seemed rather more specific and elaborate when it came to an interview in the aftermath of the session ("Russian special forces infiltrated into Ukraine", "Terrorist groups are using Russian weapons").

Therefore, one might ask why Russia had requested that emergency session of the United Nations' most decisive committee when it had nothing essential to bring about but standardized stances and such left the stage to the Ukrainian adversary. A possible answer could be: Russia has already made up its mind in the Ukrainian crisis and is only acting out of "political correctness". Churkin's key argument that "things are getting out of control in Ukraine", might therefore imply the need for Russia to intervene by force as soon as possible to "restore law and order".

..............................

News UPDATE on April 14 / 15:

Russia Test-fires ICBM RS-24 Yars amid Ukraine Unrest

Moscow's Strategic Missile Forces test-fired the ICMB (intercontinental ballistic missile) RS-24 Yars equipped with re-entry warhead from Plesetsk, 800km northeast of Moscow. The launch took place on April 14 at about 10:40am local time.

"The main task of the launch was to confirm the reliability of a batch of missiles manufactured at the Votkinsk plant, in Udmurtia," said Colonel Igor Yegorov, spokesperson for the defence ministry's Strategic Missile Force unit, reports ITAR TASS news agency.

[Source: International Business Time UK, the British edition of a global news source with main office in New York, on April 14, 2014]

The Obama administration recently decided to send its guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) to the Black Sea. Armed with new Standard Missile-3 IB weaponry from Raytheon, the Cook boasts a robust version of Lockheed Martin's Aegis ballistic missile defense system capable of shooting down supersonic, high-trajectory missiles such as Russia uses to carry its nuclear warheads. The warship was modified for ballistic missile defense (BMD) duty as part of a $22 billion project to build shipborne and land-based missile defense stations to protect Europe from Iranian long-range missiles. But just as President Putin predicted, it appears to have use in countering Russian threats as well.

[Source: Daily Finance, a financial news service by AOL, on April 14, 2014]

Portrait of Ulysses

A resident of the global village and, as well, a lonely navigator on the internet, providing the information he finds on exotic websites in China, the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.
这就是《蓝图》杂志的新闻网站。
《游历子》是在古书画像的一个
希腊人，也是《蓝图》总编辑的
别名。两个人游览了世界的很多
地方，但是新式的《游历子》游
览世界网络的很多网站。